San Marcos Highlands Project returns

SAN MARCOS  An application for a 198-home project in San Marcos − similar to one hotly opposed by residents and rejected by the City Council in 2006 − was recently submitted to the city.

The San Marcos Highlands Project would be in a rural area, north of Santa Fe Hills at the north end of Las Posas Road. Property owner Farouk Kubba, 74, a resident of Laguna Hills, submitted plans for 198 single-family lots, three mini-parks and open space on 262 acres.

Two-thirds of the parcel is unincorporated county land. Kubba has made a separate request to the Local Agency Formation Commission, to annex 69.4 acres into the city. LAFCO is a state-mandated local agency that oversees boundary changes.

Residents in the area are saying they’re against the project this time, as well, because they say it will affect the country feel of their neighborhoods. Two residents have set up a Save the Santa Fe Hills Open Space Facebook page, where people have expressed their opposition and concerns.

One post reads in part: “The thoughtless destruction of one of our city’s most beautiful and most used natural areas will do nothing but generate a short term profit. We are certain that Mr. Kubba can find other uses for his property that will not be so destructive to our city and our way of life.”

Kubba, who purchased the land in 1981, proposed a similar plan in 1998. In 2002 the council approved a tentative map for the project, which included 230 homes. The project was eventually reduced to 190 homes.

The council granted a year’s extension to then-developer KB Home in 2004 so it could try to gain approval from other government agencies. Two years later the council voted 3-2 not to grant KB Home a year’s extension on permits for the project, and the project died.

At that council meeting, in January 2006, about 20 residents who lived near the proposed project spoke against the development, saying it would damage the character of their neighborhood.

At previous public hearings, residents said it would harm a wildlife corridor near Agua Hedionda Creek and increase traffic in the rural area north of Las Posas Road.

Longtime Santa Fe Hills resident Tom Byrne called the newly proposed project “horrible” because it puts homes around one of the feeder ponds at the headwaters of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, it blocks a wildlife corridor and it places 198 houses north of San Marcos, where only estate-sized homes are allowed now on county land.

The county’s general plan 2020 — approved in 2011 — includes a density of one dwelling unit per 10 acres in the area due to the rugged terrain and biological sensitivity.

San Marcos planning director Jerry Backoff said the proposed project and its number of homes are consistent with the city’s specific plan and would be able to proceed, assuming the land is annexed into the city.

“Back in 2006 when housing was good (Kubba) tried this and all he got was roomfuls of both city and county residents telling City Hall what a terrible plan this was,” Byrne said. “I can’t believe that he’s coming back with the same project. If he goes forward with this project he’s going to have a lot of fight on his hands.”